We're Coming Home
by BonesBird
Summary: Leaving the home they had created was harder than anyone had ever though, but it was hardest on Voyagers' newest family. P/T


**Title: We're Coming Home  
Summary: Leaving the home they had created was harder than anyone had ever though, but it was hardest on Voyagers' newest family.  
Lyrics: Open Your Eyes – Snow Patrol**

**So, I fell in love with this song again through its use in an ER episode, but I was listening to it, and it sparked this oneshot. You guys all know I don't often write things so long, but once I started this it wouldn't stop! Many thanks to PinkAngel for reading through this as always, and thanks to AlphaFlyer, because her little Tom/Janeway story inspired part of this. Hope you enjoy. Also thanks to Kricket and Bren for listening.**

* * *

_**All this feels strange and untrue  
And I won't waste a minute without you  
My bones ache my skin feels cold  
And I'm getting so tired and so old**_

The room was dark and oppressive around him, so empty and lifeless, considering how he had felt about their home a few weeks earlier, this all felt strange. Leaving, it didn't seem like it was really happening. It seemed so odd, so unreal. The room he had so lovingly decorated, with her help, designed for them, for the family they were beginning. Now, their family felt like it was being misplaced. He didn't feel like he was home, he felt more like he as a refugee, being forced to leave his home for some ridiculous arbitrary reason.

The only things that remained in the room that had been his home for the last eighteen months were all standard issue Starfleet, and would be ready for whoever was given them when the ship was eventually sent out again. However, he doubted it would be them. They wouldn't be back; he knew that with a kind of depressing certainty that weighed heavily on his heart. He knew he wasn't the only one uncomfortable with that fact. Half the crew were, but that hadn't changed Starfleet's mind, they had to leave, and they had to do it by the end of the day.

He had watched B'Elanna try and pack everything from their home, had helped arrange the transport for their larger items, Miral's crib, his television, the larger bags he couldn't carry himself. Now, she had gone to check on her engineers, still the chief engineer until the moment she was forced to hand over responsibility of her ship. He had finished packing, and now he just stood there, holding his daughter and looking out of the viewport. He had a view of Earth he'd never thought he'd see again, but now, it was both a welcome sight and a terrifying one. He wasn't entirely certain he was ready to leave, was ready to put seven years behind him. Not when it had made him the man he had become.

_**The anger swells in my gut  
And I won't feel these slices and cuts  
I want so much to open your eyes  
Coz I need you to look into mine**_

He felt the anger rising again, when the original decree had come from Starfleet, he had been one of the loudest objectors, his wife and their captain not far behind him. Their order, saying that the crew, who had depended on the ship for more than seven years of their lives, should not be forced to leave it before they were ready to, before they wanted to. Little Naomi had had to be taken off the ship in her sleep, she was too distraught about leaving to go willingly. He didn't entirely blame her, Voyager was all she'd ever known.

Had he had the choice he probably would have wanted to leave much the same way. He really did feel like he was leaving his home and family, to settle on a planet he barely knew. That was the way it was. Had Voyager been on a standard mission, they'd have has constant contact home, and they'd have been able to visit occasionally. As it was, they had had to sit out the worst war the Federation had ever known, against an enemy they had never heard of until the closing stages of the war. The survivor guilt the crew had collectively felt had petered out a while earlier, but it didn't make coming back to a changed home any easier.

He looked down to Miral as she squirmed a little in his arms. The electric blue of his daughters' eyes shocking him as they always did when she opened them. She had no idea what was going on around her, and he would forever be grateful for that. One day this would all be a story to her. The adventure her parents had that lead to her birth, but for now, it was more painful than he had ever imagined this moment would be.

_**Get up, get out, get away from these liars  
Coz they don't get your soul or your fire  
Take my hand knot your fingers through mine  
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time**_

He looked away from his daughter as he heard his wife come through the door. B'Elanna stood beside him, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. She didn't say a word as she looked around the room. There had still been boxes when she had left, now it was empty, and he felt like it was a mirror for his emotions. A few years ago, sitting looking at Earth would have been a dream. Now though, he wanted to leave again.

He knew that Starfleet wanted the best for the crew, but he couldn't help but feel they were lying to them. They were all grown men and women, officers of the fleet. Shouldn't they decide their own fate? They both turned their faces to the overhead when the Captain began her address, telling them that they shouldn't fear the world they had returned to, that it was still their home, and they would just need to adjust to the change.

When she finished, he stood up, knowing that the time had come. With only hours left before Starfleet's deadline, they needed to leave. He held his hand out to B'Elanna, and she wrapped her fingers around his, squeezing his hand as they stood together to take a final look around the room that had been their home, and their safe haven for their married life so far. The light that was thrown into the room as the door opened just made the absence of personal affects even starker. As B'Elanna tugged him out of the room, he held the bulkhead for one more minute, saying a silent goodbye.

_**Every minute from this minute now  
We can do what we like anywhere  
I want so much to open your eyes  
Coz I need you to look into mine**_

The ship was bustling, the remaining crew all saying goodbye to each other at the same time, as they beamed out in droves, the only ones remaining at the end, as the ship was powered down by the engineering crews on the Bridge, were the senior staff who remained. He shared a look with Chakotay, and thought back to when they had arrived, the open distrust was obvious, but they had grown to have a mutually beneficial friendship and working relationship. He looked over the others gathered there. The Doctor, who had infuriated and exasperated him on more than one occasion, but had grown to respect and admire. Harry, who had become his best friend and confidante, who had been so green at the beginning he had glowed. Seven, who would probably always struggle to embrace her humanity, but she was making progress, and he knew she'd be an asset to Starfleet. B'Elanna, who had been beaten and broken when she'd come aboard, but who he had fallen in love with, and started a family with, the only woman he could imagine spending his life with, holding their daughter. Finally, his eyes fell on the Captain, the one person who hadn't written him off, who hadn't thought he would always be a screw up, always be the one that they couldn't depend on. A lot had changed between them on this journey, but she had seen in him more than he had seen in himself, and that was what she had done for everyone. She had taken a crew of misfits and made them into officers.

Then the beam grabbed them, and they were deposited in the bright grounds of Starfleet academy, much to the surprise of the Cadets around them, who all sprang to attention until the Captain waved them to ease. Tom looked around and took a deep breath of the sweet autumn air. B'Elanna's hand found his again as they prepared for their new lives, lives where they could do anything they wanted. Though, all he wanted as to be back on Voyager for one more night.

_**All this feels strange and untrue  
And I won't waste a minute without you**_


End file.
